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MLB Notebook: Giants shut Dodgers out of series

MLB Notebook: Giants shut Dodgers out of series

6/27/12: Giants skipper Bruce Bochy talks about Tim Lincecum's excellent start and his club sweeping the Dodgers with a 3-0 victory

By Roger Schlueter
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MLB.com |

On May 11, 1901, the New York Giants took on the Brooklyn Superbas at Washington Park. The Superbas had Brickyard Kennedy on the mound in that contest in Brooklyn, but on this particular day he could not keep pace with a Giants right-hander named Christy Mathewson.

Mathewson -- who had thrown his first career shutout in his previous start -- limited the Superbas to a pair of hits and went the distance in a 7-0 win. Since then, these two franchises (the Superbas later taking on the name Dodgers) have averaged around one team shutout for every seven games played against one another.

Considering this extraordinarily intense and storied rivalry has included more than 2,100 games in the modern era, that's a lot of shutouts. So it's even more remarkable to realize that from May 1901 until late June 2012, neither team had strung together three consecutive team shutouts against the other.

Wednesday, Tim Lincecum (seven innings, four hits) and two San Francisco relievers combined on a four-hit shutout, as the Giants held the Dodgers scoreless for the third time in a three-game series sweep. With the win, San Francisco tied Los Angeles for the lead in the National League West.

1918-2012: No Runs Allowed by Giants in three Straight Games

Year

Opponent(s)

Hits

1918

Phillies

18

1948

Reds

16

1950

Pirates

13

1954

Phillies

11

1960

Phillies (2), Dodgers (1)

10

1988

Cubs (2), Cardinals (1)

17

2012

Dodgers

16

The three-game set marked the first time in the modern era the Giants had blanked the Dodgers in three straight contests, and only the seventh time since 1918 the Giants had produced three straight team shutouts.

Lincecum struck out eight to bring his career total to 1,226. He had been tied with Walter Johnson for the fifth-most strikeouts since 1893 for any pitcher through his first six seasons. Lincecum is now seven K's behind Bob Feller for the fourth most.

White Sox
In Minnesota, the White Sox collected a season-high 21 hits and defeated the Twins, 12-5. The game marked the third time this season Target Field had yielded at least 20 hits to a team. Those three are the most for any ballpark .

Kevin Youkilis, in his third game with the White Sox, went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. Adam Dunn went 3-for-5, drove in four runs, hit his 24th home run (tied for the second-most in the American League) and didn't strike out. The most recent time Dunn had a game in which he accumulated at least five at-bats with no strikeouts was on Sept. 5, 2010.

Chicago's Chris Sale allowed two runs on six hits in seven innings and picked up his ninth win. Sale, who owns an AL-leading 2.27 ERA, has 10 starts this season in which he has finished with more innings pitched than hits allowed. That total is tied for the 10th most in the Majors. Four pitchers -- Brandon Beachy, R.A. Dickey, James McDonald and C.J. Wilson are tied for the most, with 12.

Mets
At Wrigley Field, the Mets defeated the Cubs, 17-1, on Wednesday.

The 17 runs were the most for the Mets since Sept. 5, 2010, when they scored 18 against the Cubs -- also at Wrigley Field. Wednesday's game marked the first time since Aug. 30, 1999, that New York scored as many as 17 runs while limiting the opponent to no more than one.

Four Mets players -- David Wright (five RBIs), Scott Hairston (four), Ike Davis (four) and Daniel Murphy (four) -- drove in at least four runs. This game marked the fourth since 1918 in which four players on a team each drove in at least four. The other occurrences:

The Mets collected 10 extra-base hits (the club's most in a game since Aug. 24, 2005), including Scott Hairston's grand slam for his 10th homer of the year. Hairston has 41 hits for the season, with 22 of them going for extra-bases. Among players with at least 150 at-bats (Hairston has 157), that percentage of 53.66 is the seventh highest in the Majors. Only Dunn, Jay Bruce, Corey Hart, Cody Ross, Saltalamacchia and Ryan Ludwick have higher percentages of their hit totals coming from extra-base hits.

A's
The Athletics got two hits -- solo homers from Coco Crisp and Yoenis Cespedes -- and defeated the Mariners, 2-1. The game was the 18th since 1918 that the A's won when being limited to two hits or fewer, but the first that the club had no more than two hits, with all of the hits being home runs.

Oakland's Jarrod Parker allowed one run on three hits in seven innings and improved to 4-3 with 2.57 ERA. Parker has eight starts this season in which he has finished with at least six innings and no more than one run allowed. That total ties him with Chris Capuano, Johnny Cueto, Felix Hernandez, Wade Miley, Jered Weaver and Wilson for the third most in the Majors. Dickey and Zack Greinke each have nine.

Trout
A game after collecting 17 hits in a 7-3 victory over the Orioles, the Angels collected 16 more hits Wednesday and defeated Baltimore, 13-1. Before these two games, the Angels had last collected at least 16 hits in back-to-back contests in 2009.

Mike Trout had four hits and scored three runs, giving him five games this season with at least three runs scored and three hits. Those five are the most in the Majors. Those five also represent the most for any Angels player through the team's first 75 games of a season.

Roger Schlueter is senior researcher for MLB Productions. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.